1850-1899: Golden Age of data graphics

By the mid-1800s, all the conditions for the rapid growth of visualization had been established. Official state statistical offices were established thoughout Europe, in recognition of the growing importance of numerical information for social planning, industrialization, commerce, and transportation. Statistical theory, initiated by Gauss and Laplace, and extended to the social realm by Guerry (Guerry:1833) and Quetelet (Quetelet:1831), provided the means to make sense of large bodies of data.

What started as the "Age of Enthusiasm" (Palsky:1996) in graphics and thematic cartography, may also be called the "Golden Age", with unparalleled beauty and many innovations.

Hemholtz1850Helmholtz's graphical representation of the time course of muscle action.

Helmholtz1852-1Comparative displacement of time course of muscle action (identical contractions).

Helmholtz1852-2Comparative displacement of time course of muscle action (slightly greater excitability in second contraction).

Helmholtz1852-3Comparative displacement of time course of muscle action (decreased excitability in second contraction).

Herman Helmholtz

Discovery of time course of muscle action and nerve impulses by graphical methods.

Helmholtz apparently used a simplified version of a recording device named Kymograph (originally invented by Carl Ludwig), to obtain graphical representation of muscle action after stimulation.
"These graphs proved that 'the energy of the muscle does not fully develop at the moment of an instantaneous stimulus, but only gradually increases, most often only after the stimulus has ceased, reaches a maximum, and again disappears" (Holmes and Olesko, 1995)

Florence Nightingale is often credited with the invention of this form of a polar area chart,
however it is likely that she got the idea from William Farr. The earliest known use of this
graphic form is by Andre-Michel Guerry in 1829.
See the link above.

The modern weather map, a chart showing area of similar air pressure and barometric changes by means of glyphs displayed on a map. These led to the discovery of the anti-cyclonic movement of wind around low-pressure areas

Mendeleev arranged all of the 63 elements, then known by their atomic weights, into groups possessing similar properties. Where a gap existed in the table, he predicted a new element would one day be found and deduced its properties. Three of those elements were found during his lifetime

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Graphical methods applied to explain fundamental relations in thermodynamics; this includes diagrams of entropy vs. temperature (where work or heat is proportional to area), and the first use of trilinear coordinates (graphs of (x,y,z) where x+y+z=constant)

Loua used this as a graphic summary of 40 maps of Paris, each showing some feature of the population by arrondisement.
This device was later used by Bertin who also considered ways of reordering the rows and columns (the "reorderable matrix'') to make the pattern of high/low values more apparent.

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Example of population pyramidPopulation distribution of U.S. by age and sex

Age pyramid (bilateral histogram), bilateral frequency polygon, and the use of subdivided squares to show the division of population by two variables jointly (an early mosaic display) in the first true U.S. national statistical atlas

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Galton's first illustration of the idea of correlation, using sizes of the seeds of mother and daughter plants

In 1875, Galton was interested in the inheritance of size in sweet-pea seeds, but appears to have tried with smaller seeds first, apparently that of cress. The isograms are represented by ink lines on the sheet of glass covering the little compartments which contain the ranked seeds of the daughter-plants.

Extensive statistical study of 24,500 children to improve school practice; early ideas of correlation and regression by quoting the "measure of stoutness'', the ratio of annual increase in pounds weight to annual increase in inches height. Includes six charts, showing curvilinear regresions.

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Album de Statistique Graphique, an annual series over 20 years, using all known graphic forms (map-based pies and stars, mosaic, line graphs, bar charts, and, of course, numerous flow maps) to depict data relevant to planning (railways, canals, ports, tramways, etc.) [This series, under the direction of Émile Cheysson, is regarded as the epitome of the "Golden Age of Statistical Graphics'']

Lallemand was director of the "Service de nivellement de la France,'' designed to establish the heights of locations, water levels and tides throughout France, taking geodetic measurement to the third dimension. He also served as Inspector General of Mines.

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The first alignment diagrams, using sets of parallel axes, rather than axes at right angles; development of the essential ideas used in parallel coordinates plots. [Using the principle of duality from projective geometry, d'Ocagne (1885) showed that a point on a graph with Cartesian coordinates transformed into a line on an alignment chart, that a line transformed into a point, and, finally, that a family of lines or a surface transformed into a single line cite(Hankins:1999)]

Diagrams with parallel axes had been used before, notably in the 1870 Statistical Atlas of the United States by Francis Walker. For example, Plate 97 shows mortality of different racial and national groups according to age and disease categories.

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Normal correlation surface and regression, the idea that in a bivariate normal distribution, contours of equal frequency formed concentric ellipses, with the regression line connecting points of vertical tangents

Comprehensive review of all available statistical graphics presented to the Statistical Society of London, classified as figures, maps, and solids (3D), perhaps the first mature attempt at a systematic classification of graphical forms

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Graphic representation of a train schedule showing rate of travel along the route from Paris to Lyon. The method is attributed to the French engineer Ibry, but new evidence suggests that Lt. Sergeev had developed this method approximately 30 years earlier in Russia.

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Several concentric versions of France representing relative travel timeA map showing several concentric versions of France. Each version is sized according to the ratio of travel time from the center of France in that time period to the time needed in 1689.

First anamorphic maps, using a deformation of spatial size to show a quantitative variable (e.g., the decrease in time to travel from Paris to various places in France over 200 years)

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First movie, with the cinématographe, using the principle of intermittent movement of film (16 fps), but producing smooth projection (first public film screening on December 28, 1895 at the Cafe Grand)

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This web version is dedicated to Arthur H. Robinson (1915-2004), who inspired and encouraged our interest; to Antoine de Falguerolles, who initiated it, and to les Chevaliers des Album de Statistique Graphique, who supported it with interest, enthusiasm, and resources. In particular, Gilles Palsky, Antoine de Falguerolles, Antony Unwin and Ruddy Ostermann contributed important images and background information. This work is supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Grant OGP0138748.

Citations: References to information or images obtained from this web site should be cited as follows:
Friendly, M. & Denis, D. J. (2001).
Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization.
Web document, http://www.datavis.ca/milestones/. Accessed: